The keening of the telephone beside her bed was a welcome shock to Jessica's system. She'd been in the throes of a nightmare; an endlessly long snake had been coiling about her, making her feel pinned to the bed. She'd been frustrated by the fact that she'd known it was a nightmare, but could not break free of it. She was prisoner until the phone, an object outside herself, had forced consciousness from unconsciousness. The snake's head had had Matthew Matisak's face.
She grabbed the phone, and for just an instant, she wanted it to be Otto at the other end, but of course, that was impossible.
“ Dr. Coran? This is Sergeant Pierce.”
“ Something's happened?” She immediately feared for Alan Rychman.
“ Captain Rychman asked that I fetch you, Doctor.”
“ The Claw?”
“ 'Fraid so, ma'am.”
“ Can you send a car?”
“ I'm in the lobby, ma'am. I'm to take you myself.”
“ Good, good… I'm dressing… Be right down.”
She pulled herself together quickly, dressing in jeans and a pullover sweater, grabbing her cane and her medical valise. Inside a compartment in the valise was a medical smock she'd throw on at the scene.
Lou Pierce greeted her in the lobby, and it was good to see a friendly face. He instantly took her medical bag, showing her the way to the squad car. He deposited the bag on the backseat, but she asked to ride up front with him. Lou was pleased. He opened the door for her and watched her slide in gracefully, save for a brief fight with her cane.
Lou sped toward the scene, telling her that she had a long night ahead of her.
“ Anything you want to tell me, Lou, that I should know?”
He'd been thinking about the double murder and the missing gray matter from the heads of each victim, and he felt a little unnerved that she could read him so easily. “Well, yes, ma'am, some information… by way of preparation.”
She knew that words could do little to prepare a person for the kind of work she must do tonight. “Go ahead, Lou. What is it?”
“ Well, there're two bodies, same location-”
“ Two? My God.”
“ One's older, one younger; they're thinking it's a mother and daughter, but there's some question about that.”
“ How awful.”
“ And ma'am, well, this time the lunatic took their… took their… well, he took their brains, or ate them. Nobody's sure of that, but the brains are missing.”
She felt chilled, recalling the prediction she had made to Rychman. She hadn't expected the maniac to advance to this stage quite so quickly, and certainly not so dramatically, killing two women in a single night.
“ You okay, ma'am?”
“ Yes, Lou. Just get me there quickly.”
Lou felt uneasy and awkward, and he tried small talk, but it was a poor opponent for the silence that had settled in around them. “Your injury, ma'am?”
She looked up at him. “Yes?”
“ Is it temporary, or will it never heal?”
“ Doctors say it could be almost right someday.”
“ Then you can throw away your cane. That'd be nice.”
“ But only if I stay off my legs.”
“ If you don't mind my saying so. Doctor, maybe you're doing yourself a… a disservice.”
“ I don't put much store in what the doctors have told me. Besides, I'm stubborn, and I'm in a profession that doesn't allow you to be on your behind, so…” She paused. “As for the cane, it's kinda become a part of me; lends character, don't you think?” She smiled. “And it's a constant reminder to never again be naive or foolish.”
“ Tell you this much, Dr. Coran.”
“ What's that, Lou?”
“ Sure hasn't slowed Captain Rychman down; I think he likes your character, if you get my drift.”
“ I think I do.”
“ The Captain, he knows good character.”
Lou returned his attention to the road, and her thoughts drifted back to the Claw. The psycho seemed to be baiting them all, taunting an entire population, daring them to come nearer and nearer only to discover a phantom they could never actually put their hands on, much less cage. More and more, the Claw reminded her of Stainlype, but she wanted to cling to the belief that he was two separate physical beings, and not the single being that Stainlype/Sims had been.
She mentally began to psych herself up for what lay ahead, knowing she could not fully do so until she was in the midst of the carnage with her eyes and hands directly over the remains left her by the Claw.
The squad car pulled up to the police barricade, and when she got out she saw the reporters, among them Jim Drake, who gave a perfunctory wave from the sidelines. She hurried toward the door that would take her into the nice-looking little bungalow that had become a torture chamber for its inhabitants.
Rychman stepped out onto the front stoop and stopped her before she entered the house, saying, “Brace yourself, Jessica. It's the worst yet.”
“ I can handle it,” she said flatly, about to move past him.
“ I managed to secure the scene, and we were able to keep the bodies intact, where they were left. Dr. Darius is inside.”
“ Dr. Darius? I thought he was-”
“ In good shape and saucy as ever. Between the two of you, get us something we can go on.”
“ No witnesses, I assume.”
“ No one useful, and little hope in that direction. We have determined that one of the victims doesn't live here.” The younger woman?”
“ No, the old lady. The younger one lived here alone, parents are Upstate, Albany area. No one knows who the old woman is, and there's no identifying her. Missing Persons is working on a match, but so far, zip. Jess, did anyone inform you of… of the fact that-”
“ It's a little scary, about the brains, Alan, but it simply stood to reason. He treats a corpse like his personal smorgasbord. He was bound to get to the entree soon, the only major organ he had left untouched so far. I'd better get inside now.”
“ Sure… Meantime, the task force detectives are fanned out, checking every possible lead, asking questions. Seems a neighbor became curious when she saw a strange car out her back window. Made a call to the Olin woman-the young one-but got no answer. She didn't see the car's occupant enter or exit. I've got O’Toole and Mannion trying to jog her memory regarding the vehicle.”
She nodded and entered the death house, Rychman just behind her. He watched her go to where Darius was kneeling over the body of the older woman, whose head, like that of the Olin woman, was split completely open, the brains scooped clean from the cranium.
Jessica sensed that Alan was nearby, and part of her wanted him there. She had managed to keep her eye from wandering to the center of the brutality here, concentrating on the details of the crime scene first to maintain her professional bearing. She knew that Darius had already passed through this phase, because he was now on his knees with his gloved hands inside the open wounds, searching for clues to the double murder.
She registered the blood trails and strange trajectories in the foyer, on the walls and floorboards; on the surface, it looked as if Miss Olin had struggled to get away from her attacker at the open door. She might have been tripped or become disoriented. A large pool of blood showed the exact location where she'd been rendered unconscious by a blow to the head. The blow had sent her into a convulsive state, if the reading of the blood trail could be believed. There was much smeared blood, because each body had been dragged into the center of the living room. At least, these were her initial impressions. At the moment she could only speculate, but she guessed that Darius had to have seen the same tell-tale signs as she.
The air was stale, thick and rank with odors meant only for the embalming room. A police photographer was snapping shots of the two victims, and Darius was grumbling to himself and shaking his head sadly. Darius' form was thin and small and white-haired, making him look like one of Santa's elves as he knelt over the deceased. His snowy-white hair was in sharp contrast to the blood and bile on his hands when he turned to greet her. His handlebar mustache was also white and it tweaked from side to side as he tried to scratch an itch below it without the use of his soiled hands.
Jessica had suited up and she reached out her gloved right hand to take Dr. Darius' as she said, “I've so wanted to meet with you and work with you; I'm just sorry it has to be under such horrid conditions.”
“ Yes, well, I've been anxious to meet you, too, Dr. Coran. I knew your father for a time; excellent medical examiner.”
“ Thank you. He always spoke very highly of you, too, sir.”
“ I worked on a case with your father once; had to do with a bit of an epidemic here in the city back in the late fifties. After it was over, I offered him a job with my office, but he was stubborn; thought he could improve the military, so he stayed in. What a waste, I thought at the time, but he did make a difference in the way M.E. s in the service are perceived, wouldn't you agree?”
“ Yes, he did, and he spoke of your work together often.”
“ I was so sorry to hear of his illness and his passing.”
“ Thank you, Dr. Darius.”
“ Well, we'd better earn our keep here. We'll have to talk later,” he said. “As usual, the Claw has us up to our hips in gore for reasons unknown.”
Darius offered her his jar of Vicks VapoRub to cut the stench, but she declined, pulling forth scented cotton balls, which she offered him.
“ Oh, something new?”
“ It beats Vicks for this.”
“ I'll try them next time.”
“ We've got to ensure that there will not be a next time.”
“ Right you are, but I fear otherwise, my dear.”
The old coroner returned to his work, and for the first time Jessica allowed her eyes to take in the full extent of the damnable, godless crime against these women. They were filleted from throat to groin, their intestines removed and looped in the neat little coil that had become the trademark signature of the Claw, along with the crushed skulls where he had used his awful hammer. The two bodies had been robbed of their organs, she guessed, as in the past, and added to this horror was the missing gray matter from each skull. From the appearance of the heads, the brain tissue was removed after a surgical-like incision by a rough cutting instrument, most likely the same instrument used on the torsos. Once again the eyes had been removed, presumably eaten.
Jessica felt a wave of revulsion sweep over her, but she managed to maintain a firm hold on her emotions. She kneeled beside Dr. Darius, trying to keep her sanity and professional edge. Darius had found his amid this; she must do likewise.
Darius, as if to help her along, held up a kidney that he had fished from the soup of the younger woman's body.
“ What do you make of this, Doctor?”
“ She was suffering jaundice?”
“ You might think so, but guess again.”
The kidney was shriveled, tiny even, and the color was that of a several-days'-old pate. “It's… it's not her kidney. It's the old woman's?”
“ I think not,” replied Darius.
“ Whose is it, then?”
“ That's the problem.”
“ Are you saying it doesn't belong to either victim?”
“ That is what I believe, yes.”
She stared into Darius' luminous eyes. She saw a little boy deep within him looking back at her, trapped there in his decrepit body. She liked him instantly, and she now understood his riddle. “The bastard brought it with him; it belongs to one of the earlier victims, maybe Mrs. Hamner?”
“ Precisely. It will be tested for a match.”
“ Then he may have left other such items.”
They began to look closely at the organs, finding that none were connected to the bodies. “This appears to be the young woman's,” she told Darius when she lifted out the heart that had been posited inside the old woman.
“ And this no doubt belongs to the young woman,” Darius reciprocated.
Police standing about listening to the M.E. s instantly spread the word that the killer had switched the victims' organs like a child at play.
They found several other older, shriveled organs that matched neither victim. The Claw had made off with the fresher meat, as he had with the brain tissues.
Rychman told the others he didn't want a word of this to leak to the press, that it was the kind of information they could use at a later date, if and when they had the murdering psycho in custody.
“ A three-way switch,” said Darius, “and for what reason?”
“ For the hell of it,” suggested Rychman. “To shove it in our faces, that's why!”
Rychman informed them that the house belonged to the Olin woman and that the identity of the second woman remained unknown. He explained that the second body, along with the additional organs, had been transported to the house and dumped here.
“ Such a fiend,” said Darius, shaking his white head, strands of the thin hair falling forward. “And to think that he is one of us, one of our species.”
“ He seems drawn to the most defenseless, the gentlest of victims,” Rychman added.
His words recalled something Jessica's father once told her when she had asked how a gentle person such as he could possibly want to work as a medical examiner, to investigate the crimes of the cruel and inhuman.
“ My father used to say that the gentlest among us are fascinated with the cruelest among us. Maybe it works in reverse, too. That the cruelest among us are fascinated with the gentlest.”
“ That might well be our common denominator so far as the victims go. They were all shy, retiring, quiet types. Even the first victim, a streetwalker, was known for being a timid, reluctant streetwalker,” replied Rychman.
The M.E. s returned to their work, and after a few hours an impatient Rychman came back, asking if they had found anything useful.
“ Some fibers that don't appear to match the room, and we've been unable to find a match elsewhere here. They were clinging to the old woman, matted in the blood. We know she was killed elsewhere, and it appears she was wrapped in some sort of blanket or rug. We will analyze the fibers in detail back at the lab,” Jessica explained.
“ That doesn't tell us a whole lot,” replied a frustrated Rychman.
“ We're doing the best we can, Captain. Like your identifying the old woman, it will take time.”
“ Still searching.”
“ Dr. Darius has stated that he believes the killer could quite possibly be two men instead of one,” she now added.
“ Is that right, Dr. Darius?”
“ That is what we have been speculating about, yes.”
“ I can't go on speculation. What makes you think so?”
“ It's just a… a feeling,” Jessica answered.
“ A feeling?”
“ At least until we can prove it otherwise through the microscopic evidence.”
“ Did you find two sets of bite marks? Two footprint sizes? Give,” he ordered her.
“ No, nothing concrete, but for a single man to pull this off-it just seems highly unlikely.”
“ Hell, I've thought of that myself, but if he's a big man, a strong man, my size, he could do it alone. I need more to go on than that.”
Rychman's ire was getting the best of him. They were all tired and frustrated. “I can only tell you what my gut reaction is,” she defended herself.
“ From day one there's only been one set of fingerprints we've been able to match at the various scenes, one set of bite marks, according to your office, Darius, and as for hair and saliva samples, the story's the same. Now, in midstream, you're talking two instead of one? It makes no sense.”
“ It does if the second man takes extreme care, uses gloves, takes his portion away with him to cannibalize elsewhere,” replied Darius, his eyes widening.
“ But you've got nothing whatever to go on here, except your gut reaction.”
“ My gut reaction,” Darius defended, “is the result of long meditation and maybe plenty of medication as well, Captain.”
He didn't have an answer for this. “All right, how soon before the lab can come up with something to prove this theory? I don't want my people going down a wrong alley, searching for a killer couple, going through all kinds of gyrations on nothing other than a hunch I can't justify.”
The Claw already had the NYPD looking like the Keystone Kops, and Rychman didn't want to add to that bleak picture.
Dr. Darius groaned and Rychman helped him to his feet. Jessica's legs were stiff from kneeling, and she was also exhausted. She followed the old coroner's lead, standing and stretching; she, too, had taken all the samples she wanted from the crime scene. Everything else must wait for the autopsy room.
“ Well, Dr. Coran, you've got your samples and specimens, and I've got mine; between the two of us, we're going to give this sonofabitch a run for his money. Oh, by the way, should your specimens reveal any new hair samples, check what you've found here against the ones I have on file first. Saves time and keeps you from looking like a fool later. Which reminds me, young lady, you had best file samples of your hair with the lab, too, unless you want Rychman here or some other gung-ho cop arresting you as the Claw.”
It was sound advice and standard procedure for M.E. s to have fingerprints, hair, and blood samples on file with the lab, so that stray prints and hair found at a crime scene could be ruled out right away as those of the examiner.
Dr. Simon Archer came through the door and went directly to Darius and scolded him. “Why didn't you tell them to contact me, Luther? I could have handled this; I can't believe you've been here since three this morning.”
Archer's concern for his aged colleague was touching, Jessica thought as she made for the door, but Darius didn't quite find it so. He returned Archer's kindness with a bitter outburst, saying, “God damn you, Simon, I'm not a fucking cripple. I can do my job. You needn't have rushed down here. Who's minding the office?”
Rychman and Jessica left the two doctors to war it out. As le walked Jessica to the car, Rychman told her that he had to lang there a bit longer, something about a possible witness with a very shaky story that he doubted would pan out.
Darius came out of the house, joining Jessica at Lou Pierce's squad car, asking, “Is this carriage going downtown?”
“ You got it. Doc,” replied Lou.
“ May I join you, Dr. Coran?”
“ Absolutely.”
“ Sorry about that outburst. Archer doesn't mean to be such a pain in the ass, he just is. He thinks he's doing the decrepit old man right by disqualifying me from fieldwork. Meanwhile, we've gotten nowhere on this case. It's not that Simon isn't a good, thorough man, but he simply lacks that special something. Your father had it, and I suspect you do, too, Dr. Coran, that special… ahhh.” He searched for the word.
“ Imagination?” she asked.
“ Precisely, yes. Imagination and instinct.”
“ Both very necessary in our business.”
“ Dull man, really, that Archer, but he means well, and I suppose he does his best. Perkins was a greater disappointment, actually, not finishing out his term with us. Ahh, well…”
They got into the backseat of the car after depositing their medical bags in the trunk. She asked him, “Will you be pursuing the case from here out, Doctor?”
“ So long as my health allows, Doctor.”
“ It would be wonderful to work closely with you, sir.”
“ Butter the other side, my dear. That feels good.”
“ But I mean it in the most sincere way, Dr. Darius.”
“ Me, so out of step with the times I didn't even know about your scented cotton balls?” He laughed and she realized that he'd been joking the entire time. “Fact is, it would do me a world of good to work with you, Jessica Coran. I've read everything about your case of the vampire killer, whal was his name? Madson, Manson?”
“ Matisak.”
“ Oh, yes… vile creature that one. Not wholly unlike our Claw.”?